Newbie, Mods and party members Options

[Spike]

Hi all,

first of all, thanks to Sikret for this fine mod. I love it.
I'm not really an experienced BG player and the fights in IA are very tough for me, but fun. I did some practice in v4.2 and now i'm waiting for 4.3. In my next install i want to add some more content and hence more mods. Maybe one of the more experienced players can have a short look in my list and give advices for possible incompatibilities or other problems. Thanks in advance.

I also have probs to form my party. I know there are already a lot of other threads discussing this topic, but the decision is hard. My basic principles are to use NPCs, which exists in the original game and to bother with SK or NI isn't an option for me. Here are my thoughts:

Me - F/I or Vagrant - Both are new for me
Keldorn - dispel magic, true sight and a powerfull fighter
Valygar - nice items
Imoen - sorceror in 4.3
Haer'Dalis - pickpocket and nice bard armor
Cernd - Auramaster
Anomen - need a cleric for greater restoration

Help would be appreciated.
Spike

List of mods

1 - BG2
2 - TOB
3 - TOB Official patch
4 - German Textpatch
5 - Baldurdash TOB fixpack-1.12
6 - 1PP
7 - Ease of use
True Grand Mastery (Baldurdash)
Wear Magical Armor AND Magic Rings
Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table, Saving Throws, Grand-Mastery,...
XP Cap Remover (Baldurdash)
Multiple Strongholds (Sabre, Baldurdash)
Bonus Merchants (Baldurdash, Bioware)
Romance Bug Fixes (Sabre, Richardson)
Multi-Romance Patch (Sabre, Richardson)
Romance: Multiple NPCs Concurrently
8 - Tactics
Improved Ilyich
Improved Sahuagin City
Improved Bodhi
"Red Badge" Poison-Based Encounter
Gebhard Blucher's Improved Mae'Var
Gebhard Blucher's Lich in the Docks
Kensai Ryu's Gnome Fighter/Illusionst in the Docks
Kensai Ryu's Improved Crypt King
Ishan's "Always Toughest Random Spawns in Dungeons"
Improved Undead
Improved Golems
Gebhard Blucher's Improved Mind Flayers
Kensai Ryu's Smarter Vampires
Mike Barnes' Improved North Forest
Mike Barnes' Marching Mountains
Streamlined Trolls
9 - Unfinished Business
Kalah and What He Was Promised, by Andyr
Cat and Mouse: Bodhi Hunts You in Spellhold, by Ghreyfain
Gorje Hilldark and the Extended Illithium Quest
Restored Crooked Crane
Restored Encounters
Artemis Entreri in Bodhi's Lair
Corrected "Xzar's Creations"
Restored Hell Minions, by SimDing0
Gorf the Squisher Fix, by Gebhard Blucher
Item Restorations
NPC Portrait Restorations
Corrected BAMs and Scripts
Corrected Character Names
Restored Minor Dialogs
Restored Bhaalspawn Powers, by David Gaider
Extended Throne of Bhaal Item Descriptions
Throne of Bhaal Minor Restorations
Sarevok's Remorse, by Sovran and Winterine
10- Quest Pack
Additional Shadow Thieves Content
Alternative Xzar/Harpers Plot
Extended Fallen Paladins Material
Intrigue In The Copper Coronet
Rahul Kanakia's Potion Quest
Revised Hell Trials
Saving Sanik In Brynnlaw
Burglary Of The Bookkeeper
New Fate For The Dryads' Acorns
The Tragedy Of Besamen
Sending The Solamnic Knights Home
Nazarial The Lich
Reward Negotiation
Infernal Thievery
11- D0-Tweakpack
8: PnP Celestial Fury
12: Avenger's Visual Ioun Stones
17: Dream Flag
12- Ascension
Component 1: Ascension
Component 3: Tougher Demogorgon (v2.1)
13- Tower of Deception
14- Auramaster
15- Rogue Rebalancing
Proper dual-wielding implementation for Thieves and Bards
Shadow Thief improvements
Revised Fences
Additional equipment for Thieves and Bards
Chosen of Cyric encounter
16- G3 BG2 Tweak Pack
Higher HP on Level Up
Easy Spell Learning
Force All Dialogue to Pause
16- Improved Anvil
17- NEJ2

This post has been edited by Spike: Jul 26 2007, 09:48 AM

[Silverstar]

Well my mod list is nearly the same as yours, except I don't have Quest Pack installed. I have Improved Asylum in its place. My game works fine.

IA makes some ToD fights harder but still doable.

As for your party, it looks fine. Melee fighters rule the game in IA, some enemies (ie:some new kinds of golems) need to be tanked and meleed all the time. For this purpose, I love to have Jaheira in my party, she is a capable fighter, and can reach amazing ACs with good gear. And with her protection, summoning, healing and Ironskins spells, she is one tough nut to crack.

Vagrant may be your best choice for your PC, since you already have two and a half arcane casters. (Auramaster count for arcane caster somewhat)

[Sikret]

Hi, Spike!

Welcome to BWL!

As for the mods you listed, I recommend NOT to install the following ones if you want to be safe than sorry:

Quote from your list:

"Red Badge" Poison-Based Encounter
Gebhard Blucher's Lich in the Docks
9 - Unfinished Business (some of its components are incompatible with IA, some others are bugged)
15- Rogue Rebalancing

NEJ2 has never been fully tested with IA, if you want to be the first person to test it let it be, but note that if you want to play NEJ2, you will need to follow Vlad's installation instructions and forgo all other mods in your list (except NEJ2 and IA).

[Raven]

Me - F/I or Vagrant - Both are new for me
Keldorn - dispel magic, true sight and a powerfull fighter
Valygar - nice items
Imoen - sorceror in 4.3
Haer'Dalis - pickpocket and nice bard armor
Cernd - Auramaster
Anomen - need a cleric for greater restoration

This looks like a strong, well-thought-out party.

I don't know how much you played IA 4.2 but it's worth bearing in mind that it's a good idea to do plenty of the Chapter 2/3 quests before heading to rescue Imoen so you're party has enough experience to win all the battles in the asylum.

So have you thought about who to take (if anyone) before you get Imoen? I was thinking that if you played a Vagrant you may lack some arcane power in Chapter 2, particularly when Haer'Dalis is captured in the planar prison.

[aVENGER]

15- Rogue Rebalancing[/b]
Additional equipment for Thieves and Bards
Chosen of Cyric encounter

While I don't think that these two components of RR should cause any issues (since they don't modify thief snares or bard songs) they were never tested in conjunction with IA. If you want to be safe from potential incompatibility issues, you should heed Sikret's advice and not install RR and IA at the same time.

BTW, if you intend to install Rogue Rebalancing alongside SimDing0's Quest Pack, be sure to read my compatibility guide beforehand.

[Sikret]

(since they don't modify thief snares or bard songs)

Really? I thought that the revised bard songs and new traps were part of your mod's "core" component. If they are not in the core component and can be avoided, then perhaps the rest can be installed together with (of course before) Improved Anvil.

Also, since your mod is for thieves, if you happen to modify the possibility of stealing from any store which was not stealable in the vanilla game, you will remove compatibility with IA. Improved Anvil makes all stores unstealable, but it doesn't touch those stores which are already unstealable in the vanilla game, because I presume that they have remained unstealable. If any other mod makes any of those stores stealable or make them to accept fence items, it will cause conceptual incompatibility with IA.

[aVENGER]

Really? I thought that the revised bard songs and new traps were part of your mod's "core" component. If they are not in the core component and can be avoided, then perhaps the rest can be installed together with (of course before) Improved Anvil.

Heh, even the "Core Components" of RR are optional, i.e. you don't have to install them in order to use the rest of the mod. In fact, every single component of RR can be installed separately and they are all completely independant of each other.

Also, since your mod is for thieves, if you happen to modify the possibility of stealing from any store which was not stealable in the vanilla game, you will remove compatibility with IA.

Well, as of RR v3.7 (which should be out in a week or so) I will introduce a new component called "Revised Fences". This component will basically do two things. Firstly, it will allow all merchants whose dialogue implies that their wares are stolen to buy fenced goods. Secondly, it will prevents PC thieves from stealing from any merchants who can buy fenced goods in order to prevent the "steal item from merchant > sell stolen item to the same merchant > repeat for infinite money" exploit. However, since I won't make any stores stealable I don't think this will cause any problems with IA either.

[lroumen]

Does this mean that compatibility between IA+RR can be fleshed out in detail (at the moment anyway)?

[aVENGER]

Well, the following components of RR don't change bard songs or thief snares in any way:

• Proper dual-wielding implementation for Thieves and Bards
• Additional equipment for Thieves and Bards
• Chosen of Cyric encounter
• Shadow Thief improvements
• Revised Fences

So, in theory, they should be compatible with IA.

[Sikret]

Thanks, aVENGER!

Please, also list those components which change/add bard songs or change/add traps (so that we have a complete picture of compatible and incompatible components). I know that we can say "the rest" or "the other components" are incompatible, but it's better to have a complete list (specially because I always write the incompatible components of other mods in IA's readme rather than the compatible ones.)

[aVENGER]

Sure, here are the components of RR which change the bard songs:

• Bard kit revisions
• Bard High Level Ability revisions

And here's the component which changes thief snares (only the Bounty Hunter snares to be precise):

• Thief kit revisions

BTW, if it's ok with you Sikret, I'll update my compatibility guide to list Improved Anvil as a partially compatible mod. I'll also list all components of RR which should not be installed in case IA will be used and, of course, I'll suggest that RR is installed before IA.

[Sikret]

That's great!

I will also put the new info in v4.3's readme. Thanks again, aVENGER.

[aVENGER]

No problem.

I'm glad we worked this out so that the players can now safely enjoy the content of both of our mods.

[lroumen]

awesome!

[Vardaman]

I can't wait until my next IA run so I can play IA4.3 and the latest RR. I'm glad both of you modders were able to figure out a solution.

[Shadan]

Spike, your party is almost exactly same as mine. I am playing with IA4.2 now. In 4.3 I would chose a Vagrant protagonist, and skip Valygar. Keldorn is not capable tank, since AC is not enough in IA, but his True Sight, and Dispel worth alot. Haer is very good tank and damage dealer. Cernd good buffer, many spells, just he is a bit unusable when enemy has alot spelldefense on or has a high magic resistance. I would use Nalia till you get Imoen. Nalia is my final choice btw., since Immy is almost same in 4.2 as she. Anomen is fantastic. Good buffer and very capable melee fighter with DUHM before each fight (and he has a lot of lvl 2nd spell). My PC is F/I gnome.
To tell the truth I am started to plan my play again with 4.3 when I finished 4.2, although I have a lot of content left in 4.2 still. I am planning an 5 man party maybe, with evil NPCs (I have never played with them) or with all char made in multiplayer or SK. Maybe to play 5 man game with evil NPCs a bit harder, since if I make chars, they could be more versatile (dual and multi classes).

About mods: I am using almost same mods, except RR and NEJ. And I put up 3 important components from BG2 Tweak Pack (max. HP at lvl, bottomless Bag of Holding, game pause at conversations).

[Spike]

Thx for the welcome and for your quick replies.
I edited my initial post according to your notes. UB was completely kicked out and I added more content of the RR mod. Finally I added some components of BGTweak for a smoother (hate reloads for higher HP and spell learning) gameplay. Are there any new conflicts in my list?

I think i made my final decision for my party:
Me F/I
Anomen
Valygar
Haer'Dalis
Cernd
Nalia -> Imoen here i'm not quite sure, evantually i will keep Nalia

Has anyone experiences with NEJ in a similar installation?

Spike

This post has been edited by Spike: Jul 26 2007, 10:14 AM

[Sikret]

Finally I added some components of BGTweak

Don't use BG2 Tweakpack. Use the original Ease-of-Use only.

(hate reloads for higher HP and spell learning)

You don't need to install any mod for this. Just move the difficulty slider to "normal" (the one just below core) and the game will provide these features.

EDIT:

Has anyone experiences with NEJ in a similar installation?

NEJ2 will not work in that installation. As I said, if you want to play NEJ2, you will need to follow Vlad's installation instructions and completely forgo installing all of the other mods in your list except NEJ2 and IA.

This post has been edited by Sikret: Jul 26 2007, 02:55 PM

[Caedwyr]

I noticed that you had the multi-stronghold component from Ease of Use installed instead of the BG2Tweakpack. I'd recommend using the tweakpack version, as I recall running into a lot of bugs with the ease of use version and it seems that a fair number of fixes have been done in the tweakpack version to make it more stable and less buggy.

The components from the tweakpack that have been reported to cause problems with large AI/script heavy installs are the following, and probably should be avoided unless your computer is a monster:

There are three components of Tweaks that *may* cause slowdown on *some* machines: avatar-morphing script, bottomless bags, and gradual drow item disintegration. Since slowdowns stack, installing all three has a larger chance than one alone. On the fossil of a machine I've got, I know I can get away with bottomless bags, but not a.m.s. or g.d.i.d.

This post has been edited by Caedwyr: Jul 26 2007, 02:52 PM

[aVENGER]

I added more content of the RR mod.

Make sure to get the latest version (v3.7) which was released today.